SFJazz photos in a dramatic display on historic school building

The most wide-open photography gallery in San Francisco just got wider and more open. It is the unnamed outdoor gallery that features blown-up images of the jazz masters on the wall of a condemned building at the busy intersection of Franklin and Fell streets.

For five years, the pictures have only been on the Franklin Street side of the building, but just last week nine windows facing Fell Street were added, to form a wraparound effect. This brings the total to 31 huge frames and coincides with the opening of “The SFJazz William Gottlieb Photography Exhibit,” across the street from the glassy concert hall.

The historic building belongs to the San Francisco Unified School District, which has allowed SFJazz to improve its boarded-up windows free of charge. The curator is Jim Goldberg, the documentary photographer, educator and photographer laureate at SFJazz.

The newly opened Fell Street photo display is sponsored by SFJazz.

Goldberg likes to leave the work up long enough for people to notice, two years on average. Since the SFJazz Center opened in 2013, only three photographers have made the wall. Gottlieb, known for shooting the “Golden Age of Jazz” in the 1940s, replaces Jim Marshall, whose work followed Herman Leonard’s.

Thus far, all the images have been black and white, and you’d have to be a jazz aficionado to discern the difference between the photographers. But Goldberg lays it all out very carefully to create the right tension between the faces and the instruments. The images are printed on vinyl, mounted on plywood and lighted at night.

The William Gottlieb photography exhibit at night. Photo: Natalie Jenks

The Gottlieb exhibit will be up through the SFJazz season, ending in May, and Goldberg is hoping to expand to color photography and even moving imagery.

Eventually the building, the former Commerce High School, is slated to become the new Ruth Asawa School of the Arts. “But as long as we have access to it,” Goldberg says, “the plan is to continue to use the space in even more innovative ways to get the story out about music and how important it is to our community.”

Leonard Bernstein, Carnegie Hall, 1946 Photo: William Gottlieb

The Gottlieb exhibit is the first to innovate beyond jazz. Classical has made the wall on the top row of the Franklin Street side. Next to Louis Jordan and Ethel Waters is the face of Leonard Bernstein.

“The SFJazz William Gottlieb Photography Exhibit”: Photography. Through May at the northeast corner of Franklin and Fell streets, across from the SFJazz Center.